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PORTLAND, Ore. – TriMet admits its ticket machines have been causing banks to cancel or suspend thousands of debit and credit cards.

Spokeswoman Roberta Altstadt said a bug in the ticket machine software caused some of the machines to flag cards as stolen.

“We believe it was affecting about 1,000 to 2,000 credit card transactions a month,” said Altstadt. “For at least five years.”

TriMet engineers figured out how to fix the bug and are working on eliminating the problem, Altstadt said. They’re also working on broken screens, printers and money slots in some of the 215 ticket machines.

TriMet is also working on replacing the old machines. Altstadt said they’ll have 120 new machines by July. They’re also rolling out a new app riders can use to buy tickets on their smartphones.

“We do ask people, if possible, (to) pick up some tickets when you go to the grocery store,” said Altstadt. “It can be that easy.”